Environmentally friendly NHS Tayside initiatives

Published:10:35Monday 04 March 2013

TO COINCIDE with national Climate Week (March 4-10) NHS Tayside is launched a new recycling drive at Ninewells Hospital on Monday, March 4.

NHS Tayside has taken delivery of 180 recycling bins after receiving a grant of £25,000 from Zero Waste Scotland for members of the public to use when visiting hospitals and health centres across Dundee, Perth and Kinross and Angus.

NHS Tayside Chairman and Sustainability Champion Sandy Watson and Head of Environmental Management Ernie Patullo were at the Ninewells concourse to launch the new recycling drive and were delivering the message, “Recycling – let’s get it sorted!”

The new recycling bins will be appearing in public areas across NHS Tayside such as main entrances, waiting and dining areas, as part of NHS Tayside’s ‘Care to Save’ sustainability campaign. They will allow members of the public the opportunity to dispose of waste into segregated waste streams, with cans, paper and plastics going for recycling.

Mr Sandy Watson said, “NHS Tayside is working towards meeting the challenging Scottish Government targets set for the disposal of waste. By 2025, 70% of each health board’s waste must be recycled or composted with only 5% going to landfill.

“Therefore, we are launching this initiative today, as part of a wider campaign by NHS Tayside to ensure we are being an environmentally and socially responsible organisation.

“We are encouraging people to be as green as possible and are promoting a culture of good habits when it comes to recycling.

“It also means that the money saved by recycling waste instead of sending it to landfill will be directly reinvested in providing frontline patient care, ensuring patients across Tayside continue to receive the best possible care and treatment.”

Scottish Government funding is supporting various other green initiatives across NHS Tayside, the most notable being a new £800,000 biomass fuelled boiler at Stracathro Hospital. This will provide renewable heat energy for the hospital and saves 1,300 tonnes of CO2 emissions and £100,000 a year.

Other projects include the £1 million replacement of heating tanks with modern plate heat exchangers at Ninewells Hospital and Perth Royal Infirmary. These will save 1,800 tonnes of CO2 and £285,000 every year. Also to be installed is voltage optimising equipment which will save 400 tonnes of CO2 and £72,000 every year on the Ninewells site.

These efforts also underline NHS Tayside’s support for Climate Week, which focuses on positive, practical solutions to climate change across all sectors of society. For more information visit www.climateweek.com

NHS Tayside will also be supporting ‘Earth Hour’ which takes place on Saturday, March 23 at 8.30 p.m.